I live in Northern Ireland. I was born here. I like it. Mostly. The glens, the coast, the potatoe bread. What's not to like?
Well, there's the mindset.
I've had a few conversations lately with people where the same theme, the same old moan, keeps cropping up: why is there no innovation coming from Northern Ireland? Where are the makers? The geeks? Why are our graduates coming out of university without the knowledge they need or the drive to find it for themselves? Why aren't we investing in the future? Or more importantly, why are we creating the future?
The same answers are wearily proffered. The same fingers pointed in the same directions. It's the universities' fault. They're not keeping up with new technologies required by the market. We're not doing a good enough job of marketing ourselves to the world. We're not investing enough in the creative industries.
Yada yada yada.
All that may be true, but I humbly offer another, more fundamental reason. Faith. Or more precisely, faith that believes in an after life. Minds in Northern Ireland are still strongly influenced by the notion of a life hereafter. Paradise. Heaven. A place we need to strive for. A notion that, whether we want it to or not, informs our view of this life. I believe that in Northern Ireland we are crippled with a fundamental, implicit, pervasive view that this life is of little value, relative to the life to come.
If we hold this view, consciously or, more likely, sub-consciously, why would you invest in this life? Surely, only the things you do that affect your eternal life have any *real* worth. As the old hymn triumphantly proclaims:
"Only one life, 'twill soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last."
The irony for me, is that this thinking leads almost inevitably to a sort of nihilism itself. The thought flows from this notion that we're really only enduring this life until we get to the next. That *real* life waits for us. We're just "passing through". This view of life on earth as a test, a waiting room, a journey to the real life beyond will stop us from valuing what's around us. Here and now doesn't matter compared to there and then.
Northern Ireland will never be an innovator until we break free from the bondage of the Presbyterian long view. This life matters, whether you believe there's another one or not. I would argue that the belief in another life will always hold you back in this one, and in every aspect of it.
Not until we learn to value the preciousness of the life we have, the only life we're likely to have, will we see any need to invest in it.
4 comments:
yeah, less of the shaggin sheep in ballymena might help things too..
"Live life like you're gonna die, because you're going to," William Shatner
I know we tried to have a very unsuccessful discussion about this post by SMS- as you said its not really the most cudicive form of communication!
I understand that here you are talking about the 'typical majority NI church culture' which I believe in some respects is not inline with the teachings of Jesus.
I suppose on first reading this post it highighted to me the fears that I have as an 'artist'. These fears are that I am either not creative enough or that what I do does not matter. They have haunted me from school, right through art college and beyond.
In a strange way this actually proves that I do care about what I do! I want it to be original, to be of benefit to others and to last beyond my lifetime.
I was reading Tim Keller's book 'The Reason For God' and came across this:
'Marx argued that if you believed in an after life you won't be concerned about making this world a better place. You can also argue the opposite. If this world is all there is, and if the goods of this world are the only love, comfort and wealth I will ever have, why should I sacrifice them for others?'
I still hold to a belief in the after life and I do look forward to spending eternity with God and my loved ones. But to be honest I don't really think about it much. Its there but its not something to be concerned about at the moment. There's far too much to do today in trying to bring heaven to earth now.
Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope.
Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith.
Nothing we do, however virteous, can be acomplished alone; therefore we must be saved by love.
- Reinhold Niebuhr quoted by Thomas Cahill in 'How the Irish saved Civilization'
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